Justia Constitutional Law Opinion Summaries

Defendant Todd Peters appealed his convictions on first-degree murder. On appeal, Defendant argued that the trial court erred when it denied his motions in limine to introduce evidence of alternative perpetrators, and to exclude phone record evidence at trial. On review of the lower courtâs record, the Supreme Court concluded that even if the trial court erred in these respects, the State met its burden of proving that these errors were harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. The Court affirmed the lower courtâs decision, and upheld Defendantâs convictions.

Defendant Michael Moncada appealed his conviction on three counts of aggravated felonious sexual assault, ten counts of felonious sexual assault and one count of bail jumping stemming from inappropriate contact he had with his girlfriendâs thirteen year-old daughter. Defendant argued on appeal that the trial court erred by finding him competent to stand trial, and that the evidence presented at trial was insufficient to convict him. The trial court heard testimony from two experts who both agreed that Defendant had âcertain cognitive defects.â But both did not agree whether Defendant was competent to stand trial. The State offered testimony of an ex-girlfriend of Defendant, who testified that she had seen Defendant reading the newspaper, and that he wrote her numerous letters when he served time in prison. Given all the evidence on the competency issue, the Supreme court found it âcannot conclude that no reasonable trier of fact could have found as the trial court did.â The Court affirmed the trial courtâs ruling on the competency issue, and also found that evidence presented at trial was sufficient to support his conviction.